Hong Kong Broadband Network, a division of Citi Telecom of Hong Kong has launched a free legal movie download platform. This service allows any user in Hong Kong, irrespective of their Internet Service Provider, to legally download five exciting movies for free. Here is the catch – there is an 18-minute download time out, which means if you are using DSL services sold by HKBN’s rivals, you are not going to get too far.
On the other hand, if you have HKBN’s Metro Ethernet bb100 (symmetric 100 Mbps) service, then you can download a 4GB DVD format movie in less than 7 minutes. Okay, that’s a creative way to get people to switch to their service. HKBN has been doing these seemingly crazy things, as it competes with deeper pocketed rivals such as PCCW, iCable and HGC Telecom. I wrote about these guys earlier in the year. (See: Business 2.0, Broadband Utility Player.)
Along with yesterday’s WSJ article on France’s improvement in broadband, I find it skeptical to think that moving from our current limitations of 1.5 mbs on average to something approaching HK, Japan, or Korea is too costly for the telcos/cablecos especially around wealthy enclaves on the coasts.
Also check out http://www.pandora.tv in Korea. It’s one of the hot video sites over there. Don’t know anyone there, but I’m trying to find out more about them.
This sounds like a great potential loophole in network neutrality rules. :-)
This looks really interesting!